By Adelaide Chen
The chain link fence around the perimeter of a corner gas station is contributing to the blight in the International and East 12th Street Corridor, neighbors say.
But the owner is having a hard time maintaining and keeping up with equipment upgrades required by state law.

By Adelaide Chen
Financial setbacks and anticipated cuts in public education have impacted at least one community program in Oakland. A volunteer-run Vietnamese language school has raised tuition and decreased teacher stipends in order to pay $7000 to $8000 in janitorial fees for the first time.

[22 Nov 2008 | Comments Off on Community College Students Outraged Over Financial Aid | ]

By Adelaide Chen
Thousands of East Bay community college students attending Laney, Berkeley City, Merritt, and College of Alameda still have not received financial checks for the semester.
With a week left before Thanksgiving, over 2700 students still do not know the status of their financial aid offer and thousands more may not be aware that there are problems with their application.

By Adelaide Chen
Oakland continues to rank among the top ten metropolitan areas in the U.S. with high rates of foreclosure, but the city’s Asian neighborhoods remain relatively untouched.
Chinatown, Eastlake and lower San Antonio have received few notices of default over the last three years, according to data analyzed by a local economic development nonprofit.
The notices serve as “the first line of evidence that there is a problem, and none of them are reflecting that there is one,” said Anne Griffith of Urban Strategies Council, who has mapped data …

By Adelaide Chen
Four generations of the Moal family have had an auto business on East 12th Street since 1946. Since then, two major changes have taken place. The company now specializes in building custom cars, and the area is no longer zoned for industrial use.

By Adelaide Chen
As health care costs continue to rise, the expansion of the largest clinic in Oakland’s San Antonio area for uninsured and low-income patients has come at a needed time.

The San Antonio Neighborhood Health Center that once operated out of a house in the late ‘70s is expanding into a development that will cost altogether $9.85 million.

The renovated two-story warehouse on International Blvd. is located next to the building that housed the health center for the past three decades. The old building will be under construction until June. …

By Adelaide Chen
An older generation of Vietnamese Americans is leaning toward Republican Presidential Candidate John McCain–while their younger counterparts are favoring Barack Obama.
Among Asians in California, Vietnamese are most likely to support McCain, at 53 percent, according to the National Asian American Survey conducted by professors from three universities.

By Adelaide Chen
As a result of ethnic conflict in Bhutan, Damanta Kharel, 25, grew up and attended school in a United Nations camp. She earned a masters degree commuting from the camp to a nearby college in Nepal.
But as a newly arrived refugee in Oakland, she takes night classes to get a GED.

By Adelaide Chen
A local nonprofit developer has purchased land in Oakland’s Eastlake area to build affordable rental units for low-income families. But some residents say the influx of new households will bring parking and traffic congestion to their relatively calm neighborhood.